Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2017
To investigate whether comparison by deep or adjusted deep surgical site infection (SSI) rates in orthopedic surgeries are a better basis for feedback to Finnish hospitals than overall SSI rates
Retrospective cohort study
Hospitals conducting surveillance of hip arthroplasties (HPROs) and knee arthroplasties (KPROs) in the Finnish Hospital Infection Program
We analyzed surveillance data for 73,227 HPROs and 56,860 KPROs performed in 18 hospitals during 1999–2014. For each hospital, the overall, deep, and adjusted deep SSI rates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated, and the hospital ranks were simulated in the Bayesian framework. Adjustments were performed using relevant patient and hospital characteristics. The correlation between the median expected hospital ranks in overall versus deep SSI rates and deep vs adjusted deep SSI rates were assessed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient ρ.
For HPRO, the overall SSI rates ranged from 0.92 to 6.83, the deep SSI rates ranged from 0.34 to 1.86, and the adjusted deep hospital-specific SSI rates ranged from 0.37 to 1.85. For KPRO, the overall SSI rates ranged from 0.71 to 5.03, the deep SSI rates ranged from 0.42 to 1.60, and the adjusted deep hospital-specific SSI rates ranged from 0.56 to 1.55. For both procedures, the 95% CIs of the rates between hospitals largely overlapped; only single outliers were detected. Hospital rank did not correlate between overall and deep SSI rates (HPRO, ρ=0.03; KPRO, ρ=0.40), but a correlation was observed in hospital rank for deep and adjusted deep SSI rates (HPRO, ρ=0.85; KPRO, ρ=0.94).
Deep SSI rates may be a better tool for interhospital comparisons than overall SSI rates. Although the adjustment could lead to fairer hospital ranking, it is not always necessary for feedback.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:423–429
PREVIOUS PRESENTATION: The data from this study were presented in part as a poster presentation at the 2016 European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Stockholm, Sweden, on November 28, 2016.